Every week on Sunday around 4 p.m. I look at the clock and realize I only have about seven hours left until my weekend is officially over. A panic begins to set in as I start a countdown until my midnight bedtime, where I’ll have to pack it in and start my work week all over again. I start fantasizing about what I would do with just one more day off and obsessing over how much I hate my job. During the times when work is especially stressful, my Sunday blues even creep into Saturday nights and I start to kick myself for not having a more fulfilling career; one which doesn’t inspire pure dread at the simple thought of returning to it on Monday morning. This is exactly what happened to me this past Saturday night, so I thought I would do a little early preparation and see if I couldn’t put those anxieties to rest.

One of the things that made me feel better right away was discovering that I’m not alone. Looks like most people are pretty miserable during the week because when I googled “Sunday blues” I discovered a number of articles on how to cope with them. The following are a compilation of what I found, mixed in with a few of my own.

Make a schedule

I love this one. I’m someone who finds organization very comforting. I mean, I color coordinate my spice rack. No joke:

So Saturday night I put together a list of all of the things I was going to get done on Sunday, in an effort to prepare myself for the week and take my mind off of how much it was going to suck. This is what I came up with:

Clean

I can’t do anything worthwhile unless my apartment is clean. On workdays if things aren’t in order by the time I go to bed, I’ll set my alarm to wake up an hour earlier than I would normally would, so that everything is sparkling when I get home that night. Getting this done on Sunday means I can sleep in later on Monday mornings, as well as stay up the night before, watching one more hour of horrible TV.

Take on a project that’s been nagging you

For weeks I’ve had a bunch of things sitting around my house that need to be hung up, but when I look at them, I’m overwhelmed by the fact that they’ll require more than just a hammer and nails to do it properly, so I’ve left them sitting in corners all over the living room. Luckily I was able to find this incredible article on How To Use A Drill which made it so easy, I just ran right out to my local hardware store, picked up the appropriate hooks and finally scratched a couple of things off my list.

I hung this amazing stained glass window, that my uncle George made for me, in the kitchen.

It really enhances my awesome view of the brick wall across the alley.

 These wind chimes which I bought last May, I hung in the living room.

 Unfortunately, since this window is also facing a brick wall, I haven’t the slightest hope for a breeze coming through anytime soon. So a few times on my way back and forth from the kitchen, I gave them a good smack.

Finally, I hung this birdcage in a corner of my bedroom.

Now every time I sit in this chair, it’s an adventure, because I never know if I’m taking my life into my own hands. But best of all, I have all sorts of pretty stuff to look at when I come home from my crappy job each night this week.

Go to the gym

That’s ridiculous. It’s Sunday, I don’t even know why I wrote that.

Make good food

One of my favorite things about Sundays is that it’s my day to STUFF MY FACE. However, due to Hurricane Sandy and Thanksgiving, I am now so fat, I don’t even get cold when I go outside anymore. This means I’m going to have to forgo my regularly scheduled calzone delivery and make something that isn’t going to compromise my plan to starve myself into my skinny jeans by New Year’s Eve. I went with seitan piccata, a great vegan recipe from Alicia Silverstone’s cookbook The Kind Diet.

The last time I posted about a recipe that listed wine as an ingredient, my aunt Nicole nearly had a stroke when she saw that I didn’t drink half the bottle first, before tossing in the required amount for the dish. I mean, in retrospect, I have to agree with her. So this time, I poured MYSELF a glass first, and then used what was left for the sauce.

I made enough of the picatta to feed me for a week so now I don’t have to worry about all of the trouble it takes to pop an Amy’s Organic meal into the oven for thirty minutes when I come home from my twelve hours shifts. Then I portioned out the tiniest amount fathomable because, although vegan, this dish is still chock full of calories and carbs and I don’t want to have to kill myself, given I haven’t dropped twelve pounds by the time Christmas rolls around.

God forbid I make a salad.

Meditate

Usually when I meditate, I want to murder something within the first five minutes because I’m so high strung I get freaked out over the fact that I can’t relax. However, my friend Lisa recently turned me on to this hypnosis app you can download on your phone. I’ve done it a couple of times and it’s pretty effective. It works better for me because it’s guided and my mind doesn’t to drift onto things like “How much longer should I lay here?” There are all kinds of programs you can choose from. I didn’t actually do one today, because all of the running around “trying to relax” had me too worked up to spend forty-five minutes concentrating on my breathing, but if I wasn’t such a lunatic, perhaps I would have done the one titled “Failing at life”.

Contribute to an ultimate goal

Sunday blues are something I believe to be a direct result of not doing what you actually want to be doing with your life. I don’t think I would be so grumpy on Sundays, if on Mondays I could report to my job testing zero calorie cupcake flavors. I’ve always found that doing something over the weekend which is related to what I ultimately want to be doing with my life, takes the edge off of going to my job, which is the opposite of what I want to be doing with my life. Like if you want to be an artist, paint a picture. If you want to be an accountant, take a math test (?) or if you want to be a taxidermist, maybe shoot your dog. (Look Rochelle, I wrote something about dogs!)

I want to eventually make a living writing stories about stupid stuff, so I’m putting together this article. Tomorrow I’ll be just that much closer to never realizing my dream, yet at least I’ll know I gave it my best shot, which should make taking forty laser hair removal clients in one day, a piece of cake.

So how do I feel after my day full of activities meant to distract me from my Sunday blues? I’m exhausted! I can’t wait to go to work tomorrow and chill out. Want my advice on how to deal with the Sunday blues? Do one of these things and then go have six mimosas with your friends at brunch before coming home and ordering thirty dollars worth of take out.

That really is the best way. But you didn’t need me to tell you that.